The present invention relates to an improved drawing gripper for use in weaving looms with a continuous weft feed.
It is known that, in looms with continuous weft feed, the shuttle is replaced by a pair of transport grippers, subject to reciprocating motion so as to alternately move towards and away from each other, the first of which--the carrying gripper--is adapted to grasp the weft threads at one end of the loom just outside the shed and to carry them inside the shed, up to the middle area thereof, while the second gripper--the drawing gripper--is adapted to partially penetrate into an appropriate seat of the first gripper, so as to draw said weft threads in said area and transport them in turn at the other end of the loom, outside the shed, and leave them there.
The progress in looms of this type is strictly connected with the efficiency of the weft transport grippers and thus it is easily understood why such members are at the center of all the searches in this field and are subject to continuous development in their practical realization.
The present invention relates to an improved drawing gripper for weaving looms with continuous weft feed and hence provides an important contribution to the progress of such looms.
The Applicant had already proposed in Italian Pat. No. 894,302--a drawing gripper of the type comprising a hook-shaped claw and an oscillating metallic element, elastically cooperating therewith. The oscillation of said element took place about an axis longitudinal to the gripper itself. On this same principle, the Applicant has now realized an improved drawing gripper, which however grasps the weft thread with a completely different means and with remarkable advantages from the point of view of the structure and its working.